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Month: June 2006

Coldplay was spine-tinglingly interesting. It was spectacular, it wasn’t faaannnnntastic, it wasn’t stupendous, it was intimate, touching, thoughtful and inspiring. Kinda odd for a rock concert. It made me think, remember and feel. Funny how different things affect different people… I’ve never been much of one for jumping up and down or carrying on all around, and I’m glad some people appreciate those who express themselves modestly. I wonder if the worlds problems would be solved if nobody paid any attention to all the people who do anything for it.

Wow – this blog is almost at teh stage where it drives itself! Cool! i admit not to adding much recently, but hey, otehrs lives are more interesting anyway! Thanks for the post from South America Ange!

Politics seems to be generating a little bit of heated debate, although i know mick is a passionate person sometimes I think he just loves to throw his vocab around! Quite impressive.

i think Australian Politics is very interesting at the moment, and has been for some time. being a business person I do appreciate that Costello is possibly one of the best treasureres we have had and that under the Howard regime the economy has done very well. However, Allan Greenspan was claimed to also be one of the US reserve banks best chairman and he still managed to fall from graces with some terrible choices, particularly throwing his weight behind George Bush endorsed tax cuts to the wealthy. It cost him his job.

Similarly, Costello and Howard have made some choices which I believe go against the best interests of the majority of Australians, especially in regards to tax cuts which favour the upper middle class, and especially in the last year. Also of concern are the AWA’s and the anti-terrorism laws which infringe on citizens privacy. International disasters and threats should not be used for political leverage and as such, should create common ground between political parties – we have not seen that in Australia.

I jsut wanted to touch on these topics and invite people to express their opinion of what they think Howard has done well and waht Howard has done bad. Personally I think his worst mistakes have been made in regard to immigration and environmental policy – and it extends beyond refugees to things like security, but most importantly our sense of national identity. Whilst I do agree with restricting immigration to ‘acceptable’ applicants, the definition of acceptable is definately debatable not to mention the process.

As an aside, I’m going to go see Coldplay tonight! Thanks to Mick and his great forward thinking!

I haven’t had a whiff of Vegemite since January. Today, I think I may have burnt some of my nasal hairs it was that goooood. But not that good that I wanted to roll around in it. Close. It was more like the reassuring smell of home. And all I could think about was finding a crusty white bread roll that had NO sugar and topping it with mantequlla (butter) and that perfect layer of Vegemite on top. Wow, the thought blew my mind.

The next thing I thought was giving my Peruvian family and friends a taste and having to explain to them why I like something that’s so fuerte y negro! Que extrano! And then I wondered myself why I liked it. I have no idea. My Canadian friend Shaye seemed to think it was only because i was brought up with it. Maybe. But he said his Mum liked it. She wasn’t Australian. I’m sure he said she was a hippy. Mmmm.. But I’m certain that I will not have to explain why I like Caramello Koalas so much. I think I will just have to hide them from Maria Paula, five years old and very crafty.

It took 17 days for my parcel to reach Peru. A big thanks goes out to my wonderful mother Gail in Geelong. Mi Mamita es el mejor!

Some classic examples where a picture says a thousand words (or two: Plain stupid) about the US president. Thanks to Alan for forwarding them over.

I wouldn’t be such a Bush basher if he had done ANYTHING good for the U.S., or the world! Arogant people are one thing, stupid arogant people who are failures are another. But then, someone had to vote for him even if a majority of Florida didn’t. The world just makes you want to throw your hands in the air, look at the sky and ask out loud, is this really immaculate conception? Is this what you call perfectly designed?

As I walked in the door at work, my phone rang. What a pleasent surprise, a call from South America! What clear reception they have! Bryan asks “What you doing?” to which I reply, “I’m at work. Why? Where are you?” “I’m back!”

So yeah, Bryan is in Sydney, I don’t know why. He can’t get into his car because I lost his keys in the move, and yes you can call us Abbot and Costello. At least I didn’t forget the tent poles. No the keys are not in the car! Yes I’ve already looked there!

I think the blog is becoming a little to much I this, I that… And besides, Nick has been complaining he isn’t getting enough stimulating conversation these days. Apparently thats why he’s heading to Europe where we know all they do is play soccer, eat good food, drink expensive grog and have kinky sex. I guess he is banking on the pillow talk stimulating something! ——————————

Have you ever considered what makes you change your mind? Are there patterns to it? Does the same thing make you change your mind all the time? I’m not talking black cats and ladders, but what about price, quality, appearance, how much you had had to drink, mood, presentation, the list goes on and on, but I wonder what is the most predominant. Lets call these things ‘Alpha Characteristics’.

It depends. It depends on a lot of things like; what your buying, how much you need it, how much time you have, Whether its a luxury or necessity, if its high value or low value, and on and on. Lets call these things ‘Beta Characteristics’.

There are millions of factors of many different things that our mind takes into account before we even realize. Namely Alpha Characteristics and Beta Characteristics. These characteristics are conditional upon each other and they grow together – the more Alpha charachterisitics, the more Beta Characteristics.

Where am I going with this? I don’t know. But, does everyone appreciate this would not be a linear equation? Its exponential (I think), as the independent variables (Alpha & Beta Char.) get bigger, the dependent variable (Total) increases by an increasing rate.

Sooooo, if your making a decision anytime soon, just give up trying to analyse all those factors and accept the idea that your brain has already done it for you. But because you never listen to it (your brain) anyway, it has to tell your gut, to tell your brain, that your gut feel is Cola flavoured toothpaste is wrong, even if you do get a free stomach pump with it.

Well, I’m sitting an exam right now. A take-home exam. So of course I decided today would be a good day to sort through all my old emails and find some people from the apst to email. Following on from the whole flashback thing.

Anyway, I emailed a whole bunch of people from Canada to say hi and see if they where still alive, plus a group email to everyone I had the email address of from my trip around the wolrd! (So if i met you on that trip and you didn’t get an email, please post a comment!).

Stayed up to watch the Soccer Roos play Japan last night. It was an ok game, but if Australia plays liek that against Brazil i’m sure they’ll get a whooped. Why? Because every time the ball was rebounded from the Japanese defence, they practically had an oportunity to score. Albeit, it didn’t rebound beyond halfway a lot of the time.

Australia played hard tough Soccer, surprise surprise! But it just looked a little too crowded up the front and a little vulnerable at the back to a punter like me! Please correct me otehrwise.

While we ar eon the subject of Soccer, watching the game alst night reminded me why I hate watching soccer. Players taking dives ruins the sport. Soccer players should take a look at their global image. They are the biggest bunch of overpaid pansies I’ve ever seen.

I can understand what they are worried about though, their feet and legs, they are each worth a couple of Million a year. FIFA should seriosuly consider how much better the game would be without the dives and theatrics. It ruins the sport and leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

I guess what it comes down to is honesty. Soccer is a sport, a game. Sports and games are supposed to be about fun. Good, clean honest fun. If you need to take dives to have fun, then go play gymnastics. If you need to beat people up to have fun, then go be a boxer. It goes both ways, but if the old fashioned values of honesty and sportsmanship hadn’t been thrown out the window with the sponsorship deals and multimillion dollar desperate footballers housewifes, I bet you’d see more football and less referee. That applies to life as well!